When I learned about musicians such as Xenakis, Penderecki, and Ligeti, and listened to their music, I learned that not all music exists to please everyone, and, in many cases it's not even meant to be liked. It's meant to be listened to, studied, and thought about. It's like Cage who wanted to challenge people's conceptions of what music is supposed to be. If you happen to like it, then that's your taste, but if you don't, it doesn't mean that it "sucks".
However, Penderecki and Ligeti can be liked, and I know this because I like them. Xenakis is different because it is more mathematical than musical, and I so far don't like it,
what's interesting is not that it's "atonal" or doesn't have riffs or song structures, but that it was darn catchy when it came out. Radio stations would play this repeatedly and it was instantly recognizable across the world. Xenakis- making dissonance popular with the kids since 1960!
It was popular because it was different. The situation is almost the same with Marina Abramovic. If it is something that will 'cause some waves, there will always be an audience of pseudo-intelectuals who will say that this is one of the best things that was ever created
It was popular (i.e. played on radio stations) because the CIA was laundering tons of money into funding the creation and dissemination of avant garde music as part of its cultural war against the Soviets.
All great music is "different" - Beethoven, Bartók, Stravinsky, Webern all did what Xenakis did: when someone significant - a real musician, a great and capable human being with individual traits - comes along, this is the result. As music education is a disaster all over the world with a few exception, no wonder there are so many who lose out on this or other truly interesting music. Don't let yourselves manipulated into just regurgitation of mass music. Individuality matters. Stand up to mass-market oppression. Xenakis will help you!
I think Xenakis has successfully built an equilibrium between noise and music, or less emotionally, chaos and order. And this piece has its important historical meaning. It is actually the first piece which contains 'micropolyphony', though this concept was raised by Ligeti.
I'm used to Renaissance and Baroque Music, and this isn't that extreme to me - Basically, once you are used picking up the counterpointal flow in "Early Music", lots of 20th Century Classical Music eventually sounds like Bach or a Flemish master (Du Fay, Josquin, Ockeghem) "re-lexicalized" with a more dissonant "vocabulary", but the "grammar", the deeper structure of the "Language" always is that.
@@TenorCantusFirmus interesting! say more about it, and if possible recommend many pieces from both periods to fully introduce me to both periods, it really catches my attention
I'll start checking this Motet for six voices by Josquin Des Prez (1450? - 1521), "Praeter Rerum Seriem": ua-cam.com/video/ONNQJXqCgGY/v-deo.html Or this one by Thomas Tallis (1505? - 1585), "Spem in Alium", for forty Voices in eight Choruses of five each: ua-cam.com/video/7GJq9Uf46FU/v-deo.html As a general rule, the more the Voices, the easiest is for the "modern" ear to pick up the similarities in the use of the "Texture".
This is a most unusual work. Each musician in the piece has his / her own part, no two alike. Certainly a first. He was the first to use mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory and game theory. He used music like an architecture, even, designing music for pre-existing spaces, as well as designing spaces for specific music compositions and performances, very acoustic oriented. No, he wasn't a pop artist, but a great experimental genius beyond the ability of most to comprehend. He is revered and respected by many and still lives on the cutting edge after his death.
+Frankincensed >designing music for pre-existing spaces, as well as designing spaces for specific music compositions and performances what do you mean by this?
Mike Watkins Acoustically, or sound influence, was a consideration in these compositions. Recording in a bathroom is gives quite a different sound from recording in a acoustically designed concert hall. Some places he recorded were already there, others he created for a certain sound. The space, walls and arrangement of angles, determines quality and shape of sound. He played with this a lot.
+Mike Watkins Hi Mike. Read about Phillips Pavillion (Google it), designed in 1958 by Xenakis and based on the Metastaseis score. Although long before reverb units were widely used, spaces are not only about reverberation; they also have to do with angles, perspectives, symbolic impact, trajectories, intimacy, grandeur, extra-musical associations, spectrum...
I am so happy this has 1 million views and high like ratio. It brings near tears to my eyes seeing Xenakis being so celebrated. He was such a powerful artist, not just because of his innovation and brilliance, but also because of who he was as a human being. His adversities and tragedies paired with his unbelievable strength, passion, and humanity have led to some of the most intense and emotionally profound moments I have ever experienced from art. Thank you Iannis!
Xenakis is one of the greatest composers of the past century. As much as I love his music, it is difficult for me to analyze as I do not know enough mathematics or architecture! Thanks for posting this, and R.I.P Iannis!
Unlike so many others, I myself have always been deeply touched and moved (beyond the arena of cheap everyday emotions) by a fair number of the works of Xenakis - mostly earlier ones, and including this truly unique creation. I 'discovered' Xenakis in 1969, having previously dismissed him and anything he composed as beyond-the-pale rubbish because I'd read that his music was modernistic to the extent that he used computers in some of his composition work. So musically broad-minded was I then! :-) What broke my (then) little stupidity over that was my listening to some foreign classical music station on the radio, and hearing a modernistic tumult of orchestral sounds, with some of the sound processed to give varying degrees of distance effect. My immediate response was to reach for the tuning knob to get rid of that 'rubbish' - but my hand couldn't turn that knob, for, despite a strong embarrassment at continuing to listen, I had to admit to myself that I was transfixed by that picture-painting of some sort of cosmic immensity. In the foreign language announcement at the end I didn't catch the work's name, but I did catch that Xenakis was the composer, and the ORTF Orchestra was playing it. So, boy, did my big search in London record shops start, for import records (all vinyl back then)! It was great that I didn't immediately find that work, because it meant I listened to a fair number of other works of his before I found that 'holy grail' one, which was Kraanerg. Early in that search I found Metastasis, and it's every bit as riveting for me today (listening to it here after leaving it alone for quite some years), and its purity and delicacy of form brings tears to my eyes. Although none of my own compositions sound like Xenakis, I've always had a deep intuition that his whole approach has had some deep, unseen extremely positive influence upon my musical creativity. "Let other people continue to mock and jeer, for they know not what I know", sort-of thing! :-)
If you don't like this music, move on and live a long happy life. No one needs to know how awful you think it is, some people actually find pleasure in this music. If you think that is idiotic, perhaps it is because you don't quite understand how to discern the things that speak to you. This speaks to me in its own unique ways. I also like many 'traditionally' beautiful pieces, and it all has it's place. There is no need for people to question the 'validity' of a piece or style of music, only question those who would try to impose restrictions on others in exploring soundscapes that for some reason or another, have meaning to them.
+Marcus Schiebold Well said. Many require predictability and the safety of structures in music. It's a place they go to retreat from the complexities of a world grounded in chaos and uncertainty. Music such as this, which is intentionally experimental and driven toward rupturing such certainties, is absolutely not for those who seek pacification, solace and comfort. Music has a different purpose for each of us and no single purpose should be privileged over others. That said, Marcus is right: if this doesn't resonate with you, move on and engage things that do. Life is too short for the banality of judgmental dullards.
+Marcus Schiebold: Exactly. If we pass a piece of modern art in a gallery and dislike it, we move on. But people who grant composers like Xanakis with integrity, might try listening again instead of throwing their arms in the air and having a UA-cam tantrum. There is more to life than beer and skittles. And there is more to music than Mozart and Brahms. (But you put it better!)
Marcus Schiebold for me this is music at his peak point, extreme art, taken from the most intimate stuff of the composer, sensibility at his best, TRUE art.
Xenakis was an accomplished architect, who was contracted by Le Corbusier to design the Phillips Pavilion in Brussels. I know this because of a paper that I am reviewing in Computational Design & Engineering. I decided to look into the background of the architects. I am amazed to learn that he was a composer as well. Wow.
That's the perfect answer to people who claim that they can't listen to something different just because they have no "knowledge" about this or they are not "into" this kind of music. In reality, it's more like an emotional narrowness and refusal for something less conventional. They expect to hear something, they don't just listen to what it is.
The instruments actually follow normal sheet music, this is just graphic notation meant to accompany the listening of the piece. Yeah, sorry for being so meticulous, but it's in my DNA lol
The Mirror no we're not schizophrenics like you dude. That makes sense only to a completely disparate character. I think this music is good and very influential to horror, so I think people are listening to this feel scared. Stop talking out of your ass
Lol. An 8 yr old? You could at least try to fuck up everyone's listening experience. I mean, your blatant misunderstanding of the music and your avatar implicate you're a young kid or somethimg, so I don't want to hurt your feelings though
The music is creepy. Scared, unsettled, disturbed, freaked out. Do you want to kiss or something? I like explaining very apparent things to people, it turns me on...
There is no doubting Xenakis' genius and sincerity. He was a professional architect and engineer as well as musician, not to mention having had an amazing life (resistance fighter, etc). And, for my money, this music is much more interesting than the Serialists' of the time (Stockhausen and others - limited and obsessive). Yet I can't help questioning the validity of translating certain mathematical principles (stochastics, Brownian motion, etc) directly into a completely different idiom that is music. It would be like using the laws of Economics to build airplanes, or trying to use market-research techniques in studying oceanography. I believe this is fundamentally flawed reasoning. Music certainly has laws, and, indeed, much mathematics - but it has its own laws, not those concerning the resistance of materials or normal distribution.
musoderelict You are mistaken if you think that Xenakis used mathematical principles just for the sake of showing off. It had clear functional meaning, namely stochastic models helped organize sound masses, which otherewise cannot be organized so effectively.
Our mind and our senses have always been attracted in symmetric and harmonious shapes and sounds. It's been proven that the most important criteria of beauty was the face symmetry, the positionning of our eyes, our mouth and our nose. What i'm trying to say is that mathematics and music aren't the same, but mathematic and geometry rules are always applied to all the kinds of music, and what this genuis did, is try to do that conscientiously
Xenakis composition stimulates the brain cells in a way that the music may sound unreasonable but creates visions and feelings very vividly very viable
Wow, what a discussion :) Well obviously, when majority of people (I would say 99,5%) hear this, they think "Aww, this crap is not music" or in better case "I don't like it". I think, the major issue here is the perception of music as we know it. It most cases it must have melody, harmony, some recognizable rhytm, tempo, beat, whatever. We are used to (western) music so systematic that we almost can't find this pleasant. But this is not a music for an easy listening. You don't sit in the evening with your girlfriend, drink wine, eat chips and talk about the latest episode of South Park. This is the time, when you I think have to be prepared for what you are listening to - more avantgarde approach to music and then, only then you can appreciate the vastness and variety of sound, dynamics, tember, emotions. It's all about the sound. The bad thing is, people today are mostly too stupid to enjoy something different. It's simmilar as abstract paintings, except they are lot lot lot more "easier" to process. But people also call them "spreaded shit on canvas by 5 year old".
AndrewTheShort most musics are systematic. just because it isn't western doesn't mean it isn't systematic. all musics are at least as complex as western popular music and possibly as or more complex that western classical music in their systemization of sounds.
AndrewTheShort i dont think its because people are too stupid, I think it's because people grow accustomed to what they're used to and therefore aren't prepared/willing to give this "odd" music a chance.
Alexandre Travassos im thinking about anything not western like south or north indian classic music, or african or afrocuban musics systemization of sound in rhymic cycles or etc.
This piece changed my life in my mid-late teens, if their is anything you get out of it: it should be that the diversity of musical expression shouldn't be shunned. I don't think Metastasis is his greatest orchestral masterpiece (his mature works show astounding mastery of everything he learned during the ST phase), but it was enough to keep me completely engaged with his music till this day, my favorite composer
Thank you for finally saying this. Unfortunately most people try to apply romantic standards to other music styles, with the results being evident. I mean, this music piece is pretty close to mathematics: one may like its ingenuity, perhaps enjoy most of it but, definitely, try to understand it. If one can't do this, it doesn't mean that the music is terrible, or that it isn't music. It's simply a new, complex, unorthodox, quite intriguing I say, form of music.
Working with Le Corbusier, Xenakis was highly involved with civil planning and architecture, designing some landmark sites throughout the world. For him, architecture was musical, and music was architectural. He frequently used one to inspire the other, basing pieces on computer programs and complex mathematical equations.
You mean: What's the difference between "written music", "serious music", or even the clumsy "classical music" and "pop music". The answer is simple: In written music, the Work is the text. In pop music, the Work is the recording. It can be added that in pop music (and I also include experimental electronica) the music is almost always tonal (or at least modal). This is what contemporary classical music has tried to get away from since a long time, in various ways.
This is a great example of stochastic music, where processes are give the illusion of randomness, when in fact there is rhyme and reason to the whole piece. The piece begins on a G, and ends on a G#, so it has transformed.
I can only imagine very graphic and disturbing movie that portrays a travel around hell were the demons would demonstrate how they'd torture the damned in an eternal loop of unmeasurable and endless suffering. Combine this music with the screams that come from the decayed corpses that are continually being eaten by the demons, broken into pieces and then turning back as a whole just to be eaten again.
A bit too mainstream and commercial sounding for me. What were you thinking when you posted this bubble gum mass consumer nonsense? Talk about dumbing down.
asdf ghijk Sometimes you can be too avant garde. I'm all for for self expression and creativity, but sometimes it drifts into self indulgent artwank. This recording does nothing for me. I can get exactly the same effect by taking all my vst instruments, routing my keyboard so they play simultaneously,, then randomly plonking my arse on the keys. Would that make me a genius or a dick? Depends on how some critic tells people to react.
Ko Ntos Getting more and more pretentious. Instead of relating the appreciation of an artwork to some warped conception of masculinity, why not actually defend it using critical reasoning? Or do you only like a piece because a critic told you to? Hence you feeling the need to insult people in this bizarre fashion, without knowing how to really defend it. Sounds exceedingly small to me. Besides, judging from your name you're probably Greek, so at six feet four, there's a high statistical chance that I'm a lot bigger than you, Just saying. I've no problem with avant garde or art music, but there is a point when it became alienating nonsense. Try to convince me otherwise, rather than chattering about small and large men you gimp . I'd take Stavinsky or Bartok over this old toss any day. Why? Because it has emotional range and depth. This is amateurish nonsense, done to make pseuds feel important and big. See you later little guy.
Iannis Xenakis(1922-2001) is one of the most important architect, engineer and composer in the world. Xenakis pioneered the use of mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory, stochastic processes and game theory and was also an important influence on the development of electronic and computer music. And all these in the constructive years between 1947 -1997.
Love this! Gosh so many comments - considering it was written in the 1950"s its amazing that it still causes so much controversy. The music is more about physicality than emotion and personally I like this departure from a concept of music as an underscore for our sentimentalized backstories - as Frankincensed said - it comes from his background as an architect - its drawing with sound and it"s beautiful. In this case he used the dimensions of a building called "The Philips Pavilion which was a ground breaking piece of architecture and the image on the film is not a graphic score more of a template Anyway Its worth checking out - also Jonchaies, which should be on this page is amazing.
I'm currently replaying the original Dead Space, and the brilliant OST is such a nod to Jerry Goldstein's Alien 1 and this that I had to come back to it. Xenakis basically invented that whole langage. He's the definition of a genius.
For about a week workers have been hitting things with hammers and doing working site noise next door. I thought that was annoying until I found out this.
Some game theorists doubt that the theory could be applied to real world, while Xenakis introduced it to compose some pieces. He had ever said that any ideas of music should be controlled and assessed by math that has basically corresponding structures with music. It is possible, for example, to deal with a concept of distance in different domains such as time consistancy and spatial points. So we could find a common structure in them. In my view, Xenakis tried to create a kind of visual arts, transforming music materials into cubic light by using mathematical approach. I "see" in Metastasis the last part of many glissandi moving down into just one point.
I remember my parents used to listen to this when I was just a kid and I litteraly got traumatised by this, especially the crescendo at the begining, it petrifried me
This isn't music to listen to so much as it is music to expand your consciousness and really test your intelligence and ability to concentrate and literally think about the composition as it goes along and piece together the frame of it in your mind.
Read Xenakis' book "Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition" Although the book might be even harder to understand than Metastasis. At least Metastasis can appeal to you at a gut level. You don't need to be a math whiz to be able to appreciate Xenakis, but you might have to be to appreciate the process in which he composes pieces like this
I am not a fan of such composing style but this is actually accessible and it is one of the finest Xenakis's compositions. The contrasts, instrumentation and shape are well designed, the sound is not too aggressive, some moments are exciting and can offer a good source of inspiration to composers to make such sounds "beautiful" if possible. And also the piece is not too long before it would become annoying. Good job by Xenakis.
Imagine You're Walking Your First Hour To School, Everyone Drops Dead, The Lights Off And This Starts Playing At The Speakers. I Had This Nightmare That I Called My Mother To Discuss About It.
No entiendo la maldita polémica. Esto es absolutamente increíble; el concepto es increíble, el sonido es increíble. Si no les interesa este tipo de músia, ¿qué rayos hacen aquí? Filisteos.
@@TheBoinaman1 "Uno se pregunta si esta gente entra en los teatros y dice 'ah, ¿pero estáis poniendo en escena a Pirandello? Que sepas que no me gusta". Si van a las heladerías que no les gustan y dicen "eh, yo compro mis helados a otros porque los vuestros no me convencen". Si van a las tiendas y dicen: No necesito zapatos, gracias. Eh, pero vendemos zapatos. Lo sé, pero no los necesito, quería que lo supieras. Pero, ¿por qué vives tan mal?" Cit. Francesco Trento
Another thing to point out, is that diatonic music with modern harmony has only been in development for 400 years. Would you have accused late medievals and early baroquians of destroying the mesa? of destroying the tuning? of destroying consonance? Suddenly there were harmonies other than consonances, and old consonances were considered 'disonant' because of root resolution. Read about subordinate and coordinate harmony. European 'classical' music has also 'started fresh' like xenakis.
If it's clever and brilliant, but it's also not enjoyable, what good is so much intelligence and brilliance? If it's not enjoyable, why do they like it just because it's clever and brilliant? If it's not enjoyable, they should not like it (except as a horror soundtrack).
Please note, I have NOT thumbs-downed this video. I just wanted to mention that I've tried a couple of times to listen to the whole near-10 minutes of this, and I just can't stand it. Very, very much not my thing. HOWEVER, reading the Wikipedia article on this is fascinating. It's a brilliant concept, and even though I don't personally like the sound of it, I'm actually excited by it "on paper" and am really glad that he wrote this. I wish I liked to listen to it too, of course! But that doesn't mean it still isn't a wonderful idea to put into music. Also, have a unique part for each instrument is a terrific notion. Xenakis seems like something of a modern Renaissance Man, being brilliant in multiple complex fields.
this cliché had already been repeated to death by now... however it takes time to get used to this music. Tonality taught us from a very early stage to hear simultaneously sounded notes as "stacked" (chords). The thing one has to get used to is that here, accumulations of notes do not form chords. You don't like it (at the moment) because the chords that WOULD be created would sound terrible. But they simply aren't there. The notes are organized by an order different from tonality. Generally - the stability in tonal music lies in the scale's tonic. The stability of Xenakis lies in the entire piece because the logic is only revealed with time (unlike with tonal music where it is revealed - on an essential level - when a scale is established). I was able to really enjoy Xenakis just as any other master when I was able to hear the music directly (and not through a lens of some pre-established order, e.g. a scale). Hope this helps. :) It certainly helped me moving from "this is terrible" to "I love this" and if it helped me understand the music, perhaps it can be helpful for you as well? :-)
PiEndsWith0 I really appreciate your message. Unfortunately, I've reached a point in my life where I just don't think my ears were born to like this sort of thing. More and more exposure to it over the decades hasn't helped at all (if anything, it's had the opposite effect). That was a great reply, though, and I'm grateful for the information and spirit of it. I hope you continue to fight the good fight and evangalise in this manner, it's a great thing! And obviously, you're a case in point that people can come around and start liking different things. But when late Wagner makes me cringe sometimes, I'm a long way off from Xenakis!
I've noticed this with other pieces of modern art. For example, Petra, a sculpture of a German policewoman in full riot gear crouching and pissing. I thought it was completely vulgar until I read the artist's intention behind creating it, which is actually interesting. Granted, while I can appreciate the craftsmanship in the statue, I wouldn't call it a great piece of art and I don't think it deserves the several awards it won.
"not all music is meant to be liked, some of it is meant to be studied and thought about" just say that you don't like it but understand the appeal instead of trying to sound intelligent. im listening to this because i like it. why would i listen to it if i didn't like it? at the same time, im listening to it to study and evaluate it, because these two things are not mutually exclusive. i also do these things at the same time when i listen to any kind of music. this is because i am a human being and capable of having two emotions at once. for listeners of "avant-garde" music some of y'all have pretty regressive ideas
that is one of my favorite pieces. when i started with studying composition (beginning ~ 1990) it was not easy to get this music. most people - especially in austria, so called "music nation" - knew, if at all, great music like this from hearsay. i like entertainment-music as well but i appreciate that now these highly developed esthethic constructs are accesible for almost evereyone - without the need of fitting the marketing-oriented thinking or lobbying of the so called "creative industries".
The visual part is the actual score. It is a graphical representation of what the orchestra is playing. In this piece none of the 61 musicians has the same part. What you see at the beginning is the strings starting out in unison before glissandoing into individual parts.
Music is comprised of .. usually .. sound. Sound contains resonance - sound resonates. The resonance touches us - aurally, and psychosomatically. Iannis´ music touches - oohs, aaahs, attacks, flirts, cajoles, challenges ... upbraids. Comes at the listener from every which way. The sounds have a vitality. And sometimes they lay low. Why in the world a conversation referant Iannis´ music has to talk about whether it is music or not. Of course it is.
I think an important question is whether or not a piece can be considered "good" is if it can be enjoyed or even consciously contemplated upon if you do not understand the background and context of that particular piece. Do you think someone would like this piece if they didn't know about Xenakis' background in architecture and mathematics? It's no doubt that Xenakis' was an important figure in classical music but I think this really is most of an experiment in music theory than it is a well crafted piece of music. Just like how a kitchen of a fine dining establishment can spend hours on a dish off-menu based on some unique concept and then come to the conclusion that it doesn't taste very good.
Ah, good ol' Xenakis. I'm currently just starting to get into his music, and I must say this is quite impressive for being an early piece. Thanks for posting this!
So this is what inspired the creation of the THX logo and the Horror Increasing Violin music that I heard almost everywhere. That wouldn't sound out of place in a Ren and Stimpy or Spongebob episode. EDIT: I forgot to mention that this music was referenced in The Lion King 1/2 where the camera zooms out to the outskirts of the Pride Lands.
We are used to listen to music that makes us feel comfortable. Just think that this man wrote this after he got wounded in the war. Which makes everything VERY tense and VERY uncomfortable
I met Iannis in Paris shortly after he won the Polar Music Prize and we talked a bit about that. He said he had always admired the music of ABBA and regretted he did not meet Stig Anderson to say so. O-mega was a sort of tribute - he actually used the term "quasi-resonance" - to Chiquitita and Fernando, that encodes rhythmic elements from both songs. I was unsure whether to believe him, as his health was not good then and he rambled on about many subjects, including table tennis.
It begs the question "what is music?" and the answers are probably as diverse as those who hear it. Is it a composition? I would say that it is, based on absolutely no knowledge whatsoever. But to me there is a certain cohesion to it.
"no knowledge whatsoever".... ???? I wish I could have someday 5% of the knowledge Xenakis had. I hope God gives me enough time to study all what is necessary to acquire that 5%.
Pablo Gómez I think the poster meant that he had no formal knowledge to give account of it, but he felt a distinct structure on the piece regardless. Or at least I hope so.
What the fuck are you on about? It is music, it's not even a philosophical John Cage piece. Read the actual notation score if you find it that hard to believe. Geez....
you seem very sure of your opinion but provide no supporting citations. I for one would not accept your pronouncements as anything more than a reflection of your particular bias. So let me ask you, what are you "on" about? Geeze....
Agreed about Messiaen entirely. The Turangalila Symphonie feels totally romantic (not surprising considering its subject) and yet (except for a part here and there) is atonal for the most part. The theme of love is gorgeous, the 'statue theme' is frightening (in a good way), the colors are lush, love that symphony to death. When I hear Joie du Sang des Etoiles, I feel like I'm floating in space amidst the glory of the stars. I need to get into Takemitsu more.
![Iannis Xenakis - Persephassa for Six Percussionists (1969) [Score-Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/osw8Cr58cXs/mqdefault.jpg)
![Iannis Xenakis - Metastasis (1953-54) pour 60 musiciens [Metastaseis B]](/img/n.gif)
When I learned about musicians such as Xenakis, Penderecki, and Ligeti, and listened to their music, I learned that not all music exists to please everyone, and, in many cases it's not even meant to be liked. It's meant to be listened to, studied, and thought about. It's like Cage who wanted to challenge people's conceptions of what music is supposed to be. If you happen to like it, then that's your taste, but if you don't, it doesn't mean that it "sucks".
It might
@@johnrowland3631 Might? No, must.
This sucks
However, Penderecki and Ligeti can be liked, and I know this because I like them. Xenakis is different because it is more mathematical than musical, and I so far don't like it,
@@jamesscottvideos You can try his choral works, they are much more accessible
A real little toe tapper, im gonna be whistling this one all week.
I clearly see the influence of ABBA and Wayne Newton in this piece.
Ha ha ha ha Excellent !!! This first official work of 1953 by this composer is still impressive where the neo-romanticism was still quite present ....
Music impossible to whistle or even remember is no good at least for me!
@@stevenseward1557 ABBA LolLolLol
LMAO !!!!!! xDDDDDD
what's interesting is not that it's "atonal" or doesn't have riffs or song structures, but that it was darn catchy when it came out. Radio stations would play this repeatedly and it was instantly recognizable across the world.
Xenakis- making dissonance popular with the kids since 1960!
It was popular because it was different.
The situation is almost the same with Marina Abramovic. If it is something that will 'cause some waves, there will always be an audience of pseudo-intelectuals who will say that this is one of the best things that was ever created
It was popular (i.e. played on radio stations) because the CIA was laundering tons of money into funding the creation and dissemination of avant garde music as part of its cultural war against the Soviets.
Kris Magnuson that's possible, god bless 'em
This is a hit single in my mind, hehe
All great music is "different" - Beethoven, Bartók, Stravinsky, Webern all did what Xenakis did: when someone significant - a real musician, a great and capable human being with individual traits - comes along, this is the result. As music education is a disaster all over the world with a few exception, no wonder there are so many who lose out on this or other truly interesting music. Don't let yourselves manipulated into just regurgitation of mass music. Individuality matters. Stand up to mass-market oppression. Xenakis will help you!
I think Xenakis has successfully built an equilibrium between noise and music, or less emotionally, chaos and order. And this piece has its important historical meaning. It is actually the first piece which contains 'micropolyphony', though this concept was raised by Ligeti.
If I had a time machine, I would make Bach listen to this
And he would send you bach to 2020
I'm used to Renaissance and Baroque Music, and this isn't that extreme to me - Basically, once you are used picking up the counterpointal flow in "Early Music", lots of 20th Century Classical Music eventually sounds like Bach or a Flemish master (Du Fay, Josquin, Ockeghem) "re-lexicalized" with a more dissonant "vocabulary", but the "grammar", the deeper structure of the "Language" always is that.
@@TenorCantusFirmus interesting! say more about it, and if possible recommend many pieces from both periods to fully introduce me to both periods, it really catches my attention
I'll start checking this Motet for six voices by Josquin Des Prez (1450? - 1521), "Praeter Rerum Seriem":
ua-cam.com/video/ONNQJXqCgGY/v-deo.html
Or this one by Thomas Tallis (1505? - 1585), "Spem in Alium", for forty Voices in eight Choruses of five each:
ua-cam.com/video/7GJq9Uf46FU/v-deo.html
As a general rule, the more the Voices, the easiest is for the "modern" ear to pick up the similarities in the use of the "Texture".
Look, this is what they programmed for the concert instead of you
This is a most unusual work. Each musician in the piece has his / her own part, no two alike. Certainly a first. He was the first to use mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory and game theory. He used music like an architecture, even, designing music for pre-existing spaces, as well as designing spaces for specific music compositions and performances, very acoustic oriented. No, he wasn't a pop artist, but a great experimental genius beyond the ability of most to comprehend. He is revered and respected by many and still lives on the cutting edge after his death.
+Frankincensed It's cool to see you here.
+Frankincensed
>designing music for pre-existing spaces, as well as designing spaces for specific music compositions and performances
what do you mean by this?
Mike Watkins Acoustically, or sound influence, was a consideration in these compositions. Recording in a bathroom is gives quite a different sound from recording in a acoustically designed concert hall. Some places he recorded were already there, others he created for a certain sound. The space, walls and arrangement of angles, determines quality and shape of sound. He played with this a lot.
you are saying he built rooms to get a specific reverb effect? instead of just applying reverb through a piece of hardware?
+Mike Watkins Hi Mike. Read about Phillips Pavillion (Google it), designed in 1958 by Xenakis and based on the Metastaseis score. Although long before reverb units were widely used, spaces are not only about reverberation; they also have to do with angles, perspectives, symbolic impact, trajectories, intimacy, grandeur, extra-musical associations, spectrum...
RIP Xenakis, he'd have loved putting png files into Serum's wavetable
Lmao 😂
Or formulas rather
Bro this comment made my day
one of the best comments on the internet for sure
0:47 to 0:51 I was half expecting the THX logo to pop in.
lol i was just about to post that
Awesome atonal spectralism
my thoughts exactly.
THX sound actually based on the same method that Xenakis used.
looooooooooooool
holy shit this is intense oh my god the mushrooms what have i done
Put on something with some sensuality/rhythm before you hava aneurism
I've had anxiety for 3 days straight and this stopped it. Wow.
I am so happy this has 1 million views and high like ratio. It brings near tears to my eyes seeing Xenakis being so celebrated. He was such a powerful artist, not just because of his innovation and brilliance, but also because of who he was as a human being. His adversities and tragedies paired with his unbelievable strength, passion, and humanity have led to some of the most intense and emotionally profound moments I have ever experienced from art. Thank you Iannis!
i feel like this is what the images of biblically accurate angels would sound like
I imagine Wormwood from the Book of Revelations putting this on in the car when he gets the aux cord
ξεχασοΐρς
@@guydude439 lmao
Ezekiel would agree with you.
Ezekiel would agree with you.
One of my favorite modern Greek composers. R.I.P. Iannis!
God, I love this piece. It never fails to make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck!
😮
I have to confess, I felt a great sense of relief as soon as it was over.
Xenakis is one of the greatest composers of the past century. As much as I love his music, it is difficult for me to analyze as I do not know enough mathematics or architecture! Thanks for posting this, and R.I.P Iannis!
Unlike so many others, I myself have always been deeply touched and moved (beyond the arena of cheap everyday emotions) by a fair number of the works of Xenakis - mostly earlier ones, and including this truly unique creation. I 'discovered' Xenakis in 1969, having previously dismissed him and anything he composed as beyond-the-pale rubbish because I'd read that his music was modernistic to the extent that he used computers in some of his composition work. So musically broad-minded was I then! :-)
What broke my (then) little stupidity over that was my listening to some foreign classical music station on the radio, and hearing a modernistic tumult of orchestral sounds, with some of the sound processed to give varying degrees of distance effect. My immediate response was to reach for the tuning knob to get rid of that 'rubbish' - but my hand couldn't turn that knob, for, despite a strong embarrassment at continuing to listen, I had to admit to myself that I was transfixed by that picture-painting of some sort of cosmic immensity.
In the foreign language announcement at the end I didn't catch the work's name, but I did catch that Xenakis was the composer, and the ORTF Orchestra was playing it. So, boy, did my big search in London record shops start, for import records (all vinyl back then)! It was great that I didn't immediately find that work, because it meant I listened to a fair number of other works of his before I found that 'holy grail' one, which was Kraanerg.
Early in that search I found Metastasis, and it's every bit as riveting for me today (listening to it here after leaving it alone for quite some years), and its purity and delicacy of form brings tears to my eyes.
Although none of my own compositions sound like Xenakis, I've always had a deep intuition that his whole approach has had some deep, unseen extremely positive influence upon my musical creativity.
"Let other people continue to mock and jeer, for they know not what I know", sort-of thing! :-)
You are awesome.
Based
This is beautiful haha
That's baby-making music right there folks
This made me laugh. Thank you.
spawn devils to this
От ребёнка и слышу!
It's all about the groove.
Missing just one thing: Marvin Gaye cooing the word "baby" a few times...😎
This isn't the score, this is just a sketch to show the form of the piece. All the players have normal written-out parts.
Was it all written out or was anything improvised?
@@Ilovetaytay13-e2f All written out!
That one is a sonic graphism. John Cage was the first one to include it on occidental music
@@sergwiesen8563 excuse me, where did you get that from? I mean The sonic graphism term.
@@lorenzodavidsartormaurino413 experimental music from Michael Nyman, a great book to address the main traces of this kind of sonic aesthetics
Wow...this reminds me of the rite of spring in a really good way. I bet glenn branca was a huge fan.
The ending is so cool! ❤
If you don't like this music, move on and live a long happy life. No one needs to know how awful you think it is, some people actually find pleasure in this music. If you think that is idiotic, perhaps it is because you don't quite understand how to discern the things that speak to you. This speaks to me in its own unique ways. I also like many 'traditionally' beautiful pieces, and it all has it's place. There is no need for people to question the 'validity' of a piece or style of music, only question those who would try to impose restrictions on others in exploring soundscapes that for some reason or another, have meaning to them.
+Marcus Schiebold Well said. Many require predictability and the safety of structures in music. It's a place they go to retreat from the complexities of a world grounded in chaos and uncertainty. Music such as this, which is intentionally experimental and driven toward rupturing such certainties, is absolutely not for those who seek pacification, solace and comfort. Music has a different purpose for each of us and no single purpose should be privileged over others. That said, Marcus is right: if this doesn't resonate with you, move on and engage things that do. Life is too short for the banality of judgmental dullards.
+Marcus Schiebold: Exactly. If we pass a piece of modern art in a gallery and dislike it, we move on. But people who grant composers like Xanakis with integrity, might try listening again instead of throwing their arms in the air and having a UA-cam tantrum. There is more to life than beer and skittles. And there is more to music than Mozart and Brahms. (But you put it better!)
Marcus Schiebold this is not music
Marcus Schiebold for me this is music at his peak point, extreme art, taken from the most intimate stuff of the composer, sensibility at his best, TRUE art.
your right like my friends said that this music reminds them zombie apocalypse and i dont get it why
I don't like much orchestral music but this is amazing! Why I never heard this before!
His pieces remind me of war. An inextricable relationship between his past experiences and his taste for mathematics, architecture and music
imagine you quiet at home and you hear that...
xdd
I'd do it to myself any day
I smoke to stuff like this home alone every day. It's so intense
Xenakis was an accomplished architect, who was contracted by Le Corbusier to design the Phillips Pavilion in Brussels. I know this because of a paper that I am reviewing in Computational Design & Engineering. I decided to look into the background of the architects. I am amazed to learn that he was a composer as well. Wow.
I love it. Must be seen/heard live to better understand it.
Verdammt gruselig finde ich den ersten Teil, das ist wirklich verrückt!
our future robot overlord will love this masterpiece
sounds like a perfect soundtrack to any movie that needs a suspenseful moment
Now I see why math is nightmare for some people lol
Lmfao
That's the perfect answer to people who claim that they can't listen to something different just because they have no "knowledge" about this or they are not "into" this kind of music. In reality, it's more like an emotional narrowness and refusal for something less conventional. They expect to hear something, they don't just listen to what it is.
Someone: I'm gonna use pentagram and sever notes to write music.
Iannis Xenakis: hold my beer.
The instruments actually follow normal sheet music, this is just graphic notation meant to accompany the listening of the piece. Yeah, sorry for being so meticulous, but it's in my DNA lol
@@AnAverageItalian booooorrriiiiiing...
@@nicholaschristophorou3087 bruh momento
Thanks for a great score visualisation!
user 1: this is noise an 8 year old could make!
user 2: I feel sorry for you...
user 3: wow open your mind!
I think it's the graph, it's confusing them to what they think their ears are hearing.
The Mirror no we're not schizophrenics like you dude. That makes sense only to a completely disparate character. I think this music is good and very influential to horror, so I think people are listening to this feel scared. Stop talking out of your ass
Lol. An 8 yr old? You could at least try to fuck up everyone's listening experience. I mean, your blatant misunderstanding of the music and your avatar implicate you're a young kid or somethimg, so I don't want to hurt your feelings though
Wane Shalsh Why would they feel scared? Your sentence structure is actually schizophrenic
The music is creepy. Scared, unsettled, disturbed, freaked out. Do you want to kiss or something? I like explaining very apparent things to people, it turns me on...
The fact that this came out in 1954 makes it even more terrifying.
this is genuinly terryfying
There is no doubting Xenakis' genius and sincerity. He was a professional architect and engineer as well as musician, not to mention having had an amazing life (resistance fighter, etc). And, for my money, this music is much more interesting than the Serialists' of the time (Stockhausen and others - limited and obsessive).
Yet I can't help questioning the validity of translating certain mathematical principles (stochastics, Brownian motion, etc) directly into a completely different idiom that is music. It would be like using the laws of Economics to build airplanes, or trying to use market-research techniques in studying oceanography. I believe this is fundamentally flawed reasoning. Music certainly has laws, and, indeed, much mathematics - but it has its own laws, not those concerning the resistance of materials or normal distribution.
You just gave the world the right answer to this shit.
musoderelict You are mistaken if you think that Xenakis used mathematical principles just for the sake of showing off. It had clear functional meaning, namely stochastic models helped organize sound masses, which otherewise cannot be organized so effectively.
I think you misunderstood the comment, and I don't even think you actually got the idea behind his comment lol.
Shyuum What is in this comment that I did not understand according to you?
Our mind and our senses have always been attracted in symmetric and harmonious shapes and sounds. It's been proven that the most important criteria of beauty was the face symmetry, the positionning of our eyes, our mouth and our nose. What i'm trying to say is that mathematics and music aren't the same, but mathematic and geometry rules are always applied to all the kinds of music, and what this genuis did, is try to do that conscientiously
Xenakis composition stimulates the brain cells in a way that the music may sound unreasonable but creates visions and feelings very vividly very viable
Wow, what a discussion :)
Well obviously, when majority of people (I would say 99,5%) hear this, they think "Aww, this crap is not music" or in better case "I don't like it". I think, the major issue here is the perception of music as we know it.
It most cases it must have melody, harmony, some recognizable rhytm, tempo, beat, whatever. We are used to (western) music so systematic that we almost can't find this pleasant.
But this is not a music for an easy listening. You don't sit in the evening with your girlfriend, drink wine, eat chips and talk about the latest episode of South Park. This is the time, when you I think have to be prepared for what you are listening to - more avantgarde approach to music and then, only then you can appreciate the vastness and variety of sound, dynamics, tember, emotions. It's all about the sound.
The bad thing is, people today are mostly too stupid to enjoy something different.
It's simmilar as abstract paintings, except they are lot lot lot more "easier" to process. But people also call them "spreaded shit on canvas by 5 year old".
AndrewTheShort But is it music? Well, there's a cheese that's not a cheese at all and people eat that crap and call it a cheese, so why the hell not.
AndrewTheShort most musics are systematic. just because it isn't western doesn't mean it isn't systematic. all musics are at least as complex as western popular music and possibly as or more complex that western classical music in their systemization of sounds.
AndrewTheShort i dont think its because people are too stupid, I think it's because people grow accustomed to what they're used to and therefore aren't prepared/willing to give this "odd" music a chance.
Jared Cooper Who said that Xenakis isn't western? Greece is the birth of western society. Xenakis is pure western vanguard.
Alexandre Travassos im thinking about anything not western like south or north indian classic music, or african or afrocuban musics systemization of sound in rhymic cycles or etc.
This piece changed my life in my mid-late teens, if their is anything you get out of it: it should be that the diversity of musical expression shouldn't be shunned. I don't think Metastasis is his greatest orchestral masterpiece (his mature works show astounding mastery of everything he learned during the ST phase), but it was enough to keep me completely engaged with his music till this day, my favorite composer
Ah the good ol' days, i remember when they played this at my middle school dance 🥰
Thank you for finally saying this.
Unfortunately most people try to apply romantic standards to other music styles, with the results being evident. I mean, this music piece is pretty close to mathematics: one may like its ingenuity, perhaps enjoy most of it but, definitely, try to understand it.
If one can't do this, it doesn't mean that the music is terrible, or that it isn't music. It's simply a new, complex, unorthodox, quite intriguing I say, form of music.
This on a LSD trip would be just brutal..
Fucking hell imagine, your whole world would literally just collapse in on itself
You will be left half dead with white bubbles coming out of your mouth :P hahaha
Try listening to Black Angels by George Crumb while on LSD
Lsd? Do you mean LDS? Brutal how? Mormons are such nice people.
exactly my thoughts.
Wow thats the first time Ive ever seen the score for a piece by Xenakis, ty very interesting.
Look at the actual notation man, it's quite overwhelming
Yes but, is it his?
Working with Le Corbusier, Xenakis was highly involved with civil planning and architecture, designing some landmark sites throughout the world. For him, architecture was musical, and music was architectural. He frequently used one to inspire the other, basing pieces on computer programs and complex mathematical equations.
This sounds like a thrilling suspenseful background music from the old horror movies.
You mean: What's the difference between "written music", "serious music", or even the clumsy "classical music" and "pop music". The answer is simple: In written music, the Work is the text. In pop music, the Work is the recording. It can be added that in pop music (and I also include experimental electronica) the music is almost always tonal (or at least modal). This is what contemporary classical music has tried to get away from since a long time, in various ways.
This is a great example of stochastic music, where processes are give the illusion of randomness, when in fact there is rhyme and reason to the whole piece. The piece begins on a G, and ends on a G#, so it has transformed.
I can only imagine very graphic and disturbing movie that portrays a travel around hell were the demons would demonstrate how they'd torture the damned in an eternal loop of unmeasurable and endless suffering. Combine this music with the screams that come from the decayed corpses that are continually being eaten by the demons, broken into pieces and then turning back as a whole just to be eaten again.
A bit too mainstream and commercial sounding for me. What were you thinking when you posted this bubble gum mass consumer nonsense? Talk about dumbing down.
Adam Smith R U a hipster?
asdf ghijk No, I'm a prankster. How anyone can believe that what I wrote was serious is actually beyond me.
Adam Smith I was just joking. Looks liked i pranked the prankster. Also this album is actually terrible. Got no soul.
asdf ghijk
Sometimes you can be too avant garde. I'm all for for self expression and creativity, but sometimes it drifts into self indulgent artwank.
This recording does nothing for me. I can get exactly the same effect by taking all my vst instruments, routing my keyboard so they play simultaneously,, then randomly plonking my arse on the keys. Would that make me a genius or a dick? Depends on how some critic tells people to react.
Ko Ntos Getting more and more pretentious. Instead of relating the appreciation of an artwork to some warped conception of masculinity, why not actually defend it using critical reasoning? Or do you only like a piece because a critic told you to? Hence you feeling the need to insult people in this bizarre fashion, without knowing how to really defend it. Sounds exceedingly small to me. Besides, judging from your name you're probably Greek, so at six feet four, there's a high statistical chance that I'm a lot bigger than you, Just saying. I've no problem with avant garde or art music, but there is a point when it became alienating nonsense. Try to convince me otherwise, rather than chattering about small and large men you gimp . I'd take Stavinsky or Bartok over this old toss any day. Why? Because it has emotional range and depth. This is amateurish nonsense, done to make pseuds feel important and big. See you later little guy.
it was so bizarre listening to what comes after 1:30 after associating that small piece of music with the intro of Le Desordre C'est Moi
Iannis Xenakis(1922-2001) is one of the most important architect, engineer and composer in the world. Xenakis pioneered the use of mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory, stochastic processes and game theory and was also an important influence on the development of electronic and computer music. And all these in the constructive years between 1947 -1997.
Love this! Gosh so many comments - considering it was written in the 1950"s its amazing that it still causes so much controversy. The music is more about physicality than emotion and personally I like this departure from a concept of music as an underscore for our sentimentalized backstories - as Frankincensed said - it comes from his background as an architect - its drawing with sound and it"s beautiful. In this case he used the dimensions of a building called "The Philips Pavilion which was a ground breaking piece of architecture and the image on the film is not a graphic score more of a template Anyway Its worth checking out - also Jonchaies, which should be on this page is amazing.
Genius!
I found this through an tamil writer. After 2 year's with an good head phone. It's thrills
Xenakis is better than Cage
Μαξιμιλιανός Ροβεσπιέρος most composers are
shots fired
Oh shit get rekt Johnny
who is not?
lol
I'm currently replaying the original Dead Space, and the brilliant OST is such a nod to Jerry Goldstein's Alien 1 and this that I had to come back to it. Xenakis basically invented that whole langage. He's the definition of a genius.
This piece of art works just like my brain. It's stimulating in a whole different way than music usually is.
For about a week workers have been hitting things with hammers and doing working site noise next door. I thought that was annoying until I found out this.
Some game theorists doubt that the theory could be applied to real world, while Xenakis introduced it to compose some pieces. He had ever said that any ideas of music should be controlled and assessed by math that has basically corresponding structures with music. It is possible, for example, to deal with a concept of distance in different domains such as time consistancy and spatial points. So we could find a common structure in them. In my view, Xenakis tried to create a kind of visual arts, transforming music materials into cubic light by using mathematical approach. I "see" in Metastasis the last part of many glissandi moving down into just one point.
I remember my parents used to listen to this when I was just a kid and I litteraly got traumatised by this, especially the crescendo at the begining, it petrifried me
Your parents seem to have incredible taste
yes they have 🤣@@Fangednoumena
Oh shit, Orchids Chaos is Me album samples the beginner part to start their album before they rip your head off with their music. Cool man
thats why im here too.
And cause of Orchid, i get to enjoy Xenakis' piece. Good stuff.
This isn't music to listen to so much as it is music to expand your consciousness and really test your intelligence and ability to concentrate and literally think about the composition as it goes along and piece together the frame of it in your mind.
Read Xenakis' book "Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition"
Although the book might be even harder to understand than Metastasis. At least Metastasis can appeal to you at a gut level. You don't need to be a math whiz to be able to appreciate Xenakis, but you might have to be to appreciate the process in which he composes pieces like this
It's out of print and costs a fortune
This is so cool. I hear bits of serial Stravinsky in the middle section. Thanks for posting.
I am not a fan of such composing style but this is actually accessible and it is one of the finest Xenakis's compositions. The contrasts, instrumentation and shape are well designed, the sound is not too aggressive, some moments are exciting and can offer a good source of inspiration to composers to make such sounds "beautiful" if possible. And also the piece is not too long before it would become annoying. Good job by Xenakis.
If music is meant to be felt. This is it.
Imagine You're Walking Your First Hour To School, Everyone Drops Dead, The Lights Off And This Starts Playing At The Speakers. I Had This Nightmare That I Called My Mother To Discuss About It.
No entiendo la maldita polémica. Esto es absolutamente increíble; el concepto es increíble, el sonido es increíble. Si no les interesa este tipo de músia, ¿qué rayos hacen aquí? Filisteos.
Lo mismo que tú: opinar. Y claro que nos interesa, pero en sentido crítico y negativo.
@@TheBoinaman1 "Uno se pregunta si esta gente entra en los teatros y dice 'ah, ¿pero estáis poniendo en escena a Pirandello? Que sepas que no me gusta". Si van a las heladerías que no les gustan y dicen "eh, yo compro mis helados a otros porque los vuestros no me convencen". Si van a las tiendas y dicen: No necesito zapatos, gracias. Eh, pero vendemos zapatos. Lo sé, pero no los necesito, quería que lo supieras. Pero, ¿por qué vives tan mal?"
Cit. Francesco Trento
Another thing to point out, is that diatonic music with modern harmony has only been in development for 400 years. Would you have accused late medievals and early baroquians of destroying the mesa? of destroying the tuning? of destroying consonance? Suddenly there were harmonies other than consonances, and old consonances were considered 'disonant' because of root resolution. Read about subordinate and coordinate harmony. European 'classical' music has also 'started fresh' like xenakis.
Wow. This is so fucking intense.
Boy, it´s an absolutely sensational work.
And everyone thought it was serial music that produced the most intense sound possible! It's infact mathmatical formulae!
i just found out about Xenakis reading about some work he did for the Dominicans. UA-cam you are the best
It's so clever and smart and brilliant, everyone says so.
It's also not enjoyable, everyone says so.
My favorite part starts at 8:50.
If it's clever and brilliant, but it's also not enjoyable, what good is so much intelligence and brilliance?
If it's not enjoyable, why do they like it just because it's clever and brilliant? If it's not enjoyable, they should not like it (except as a horror soundtrack).
@@TheBoinaman1 that is an opinion, music is all subjective. im sure there's someone out there who genuinely likes listening to this
Xenakis was also an architect who used this piece to inspire his design of The Philips Pavilion (alongside Le Corbusier)
Please note, I have NOT thumbs-downed this video.
I just wanted to mention that I've tried a couple of times to listen to the whole near-10 minutes of this, and I just can't stand it. Very, very much not my thing. HOWEVER, reading the Wikipedia article on this is fascinating. It's a brilliant concept, and even though I don't personally like the sound of it, I'm actually excited by it "on paper" and am really glad that he wrote this. I wish I liked to listen to it too, of course! But that doesn't mean it still isn't a wonderful idea to put into music. Also, have a unique part for each instrument is a terrific notion. Xenakis seems like something of a modern Renaissance Man, being brilliant in multiple complex fields.
this cliché had already been repeated to death by now... however it takes time to get used to this music. Tonality taught us from a very early stage to hear simultaneously sounded notes as "stacked" (chords). The thing one has to get used to is that here, accumulations of notes do not form chords. You don't like it (at the moment) because the chords that WOULD be created would sound terrible. But they simply aren't there. The notes are organized by an order different from tonality.
Generally - the stability in tonal music lies in the scale's tonic. The stability of Xenakis lies in the entire piece because the logic is only revealed with time (unlike with tonal music where it is revealed - on an essential level - when a scale is established). I was able to really enjoy Xenakis just as any other master when I was able to hear the music directly (and not through a lens of some pre-established order, e.g. a scale). Hope this helps. :) It certainly helped me moving from "this is terrible" to "I love this" and if it helped me understand the music, perhaps it can be helpful for you as well? :-)
PiEndsWith0
I really appreciate your message.
Unfortunately, I've reached a point in my life where I just don't think my ears were born to like this sort of thing. More and more exposure to it over the decades hasn't helped at all (if anything, it's had the opposite effect). That was a great reply, though, and I'm grateful for the information and spirit of it.
I hope you continue to fight the good fight and evangalise in this manner, it's a great thing! And obviously, you're a case in point that people can come around and start liking different things. But when late Wagner makes me cringe sometimes, I'm a long way off from Xenakis!
I'm with you on that one. this is some weird creepy music. I respect the musicianship and composition behind it and all. but def not my thing either.
I've noticed this with other pieces of modern art. For example, Petra, a sculpture of a German policewoman in full riot gear crouching and pissing. I thought it was completely vulgar until I read the artist's intention behind creating it, which is actually interesting. Granted, while I can appreciate the craftsmanship in the statue, I wouldn't call it a great piece of art and I don't think it deserves the several awards it won.
It is actually very sexy
"not all music is meant to be liked, some of it is meant to be studied and thought about" just say that you don't like it but understand the appeal instead of trying to sound intelligent.
im listening to this because i like it. why would i listen to it if i didn't like it? at the same time, im listening to it to study and evaluate it, because these two things are not mutually exclusive. i also do these things at the same time when i listen to any kind of music. this is because i am a human being and capable of having two emotions at once.
for listeners of "avant-garde" music some of y'all have pretty regressive ideas
Great....every instrument in tune....when does the orchestra start ?
Yeah, I stumbled in this by chance, it's been quite a surprise... And what a great piece of music btw.
Ανατριχιάστικο!!
that is one of my favorite pieces. when i started with studying composition (beginning ~ 1990) it was not easy to get this music. most people - especially in austria, so called "music nation" - knew, if at all, great music like this from hearsay. i like entertainment-music as well but i appreciate that now these highly developed esthethic constructs are accesible for almost evereyone - without the need of fitting the marketing-oriented thinking or lobbying of the so called "creative industries".
Good points.
Sounds like the extended soundtrack to the trailer of a thriller movie.
Musique ennuyeuse. Je baille, je baille et je m’endors.
The visual part is the actual score. It is a graphical representation of what the orchestra is playing. In this piece none of the 61 musicians has the same part. What you see at the beginning is the strings starting out in unison before glissandoing into individual parts.
when people find the weird side of youtube mixed with the weird side of music
to me the weird side is two billion views of Adele Hello
Music is comprised of .. usually .. sound. Sound contains resonance - sound resonates. The resonance touches us - aurally, and psychosomatically. Iannis´ music touches - oohs, aaahs, attacks, flirts, cajoles, challenges ... upbraids. Comes at the listener from every which way. The sounds have a vitality. And sometimes they lay low. Why in the world a conversation referant Iannis´ music has to talk about whether it is music or not. Of course it is.
It IS music, it's even written and all, and is composed through mathematical functions, it's not just sound ore some random notes being played.
If it sounds as noise, it's not music, it's noise. Compositional and technical skill it's not relevant if the final result is noise.
the only thing that touched you was your uncle and now you like this music. end of story.
VIP remix of this with "TURN DOWN FOR WHAT" at all the sick drops
I think an important question is whether or not a piece can be considered "good" is if it can be enjoyed or even consciously contemplated upon if you do not understand the background and context of that particular piece. Do you think someone would like this piece if they didn't know about Xenakis' background in architecture and mathematics?
It's no doubt that Xenakis' was an important figure in classical music but I think this really is most of an experiment in music theory than it is a well crafted piece of music. Just like how a kitchen of a fine dining establishment can spend hours on a dish off-menu based on some unique concept and then come to the conclusion that it doesn't taste very good.
Architecture and mathematics is irrelevant to enjoying this piece, yes. And this piece is fucking amazing in every sense of the the word.
Agree with David Brant. I don't know anything about Xenakis's life but this sounds good to me.
I should HOPE so, but it MIGHT taint the experience.
Ah, good ol' Xenakis. I'm currently just starting to get into his music, and I must say this is quite impressive for being an early piece. Thanks for posting this!
Disattachted from social dogma anyone?
I dont know man. This sounds horrifying to me xD.
That sounds great for scaring friends on halloween. Gonna try it on New Years Eve xD. Im going to wait until my relatives are kinda drunk :D
Memes brought me here
yes
mmm, maybe nore like "that guy" hehe
So this is what inspired the creation of the THX logo and the Horror Increasing Violin music that I heard almost everywhere. That wouldn't sound out of place in a Ren and Stimpy or Spongebob episode.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that this music was referenced in The Lion King 1/2 where the camera zooms out to the outskirts of the Pride Lands.
We are used to listen to music that makes us feel comfortable. Just think that this man wrote this after he got wounded in the war. Which makes everything VERY tense and VERY uncomfortable
I met Iannis in Paris shortly after he won the Polar Music Prize and we talked a bit about that. He said he had always admired the music of ABBA and regretted he did not meet Stig Anderson to say so. O-mega was a sort of tribute - he actually used the term "quasi-resonance" - to Chiquitita and Fernando, that encodes rhythmic elements from both songs. I was unsure whether to believe him, as his health was not good then and he rambled on about many subjects, including table tennis.
It begs the question "what is music?" and the answers are probably as diverse as those who hear it. Is it a composition? I would say that it is, based on absolutely no knowledge whatsoever. But to me there is a certain cohesion to it.
"no knowledge whatsoever".... ???? I wish I could have someday 5% of the knowledge Xenakis had. I hope God gives me enough time to study all what is necessary to acquire that 5%.
Pablo Gómez
I think the poster meant that he had no formal knowledge to give account of it, but he felt a distinct structure on the piece regardless. Or at least I hope so.
Pablo that was indeed, my intended meaning.
What the fuck are you on about?
It is music, it's not even a philosophical John Cage piece. Read the actual notation score if you find it that hard to believe. Geez....
you seem very sure of your opinion but provide no supporting citations. I for one would not accept your pronouncements as anything more than a reflection of your particular bias. So let me ask you, what are you "on" about? Geeze....
Approximately, it discribes the relationship i have with my mother.
I love it!
Agreed about Messiaen entirely. The Turangalila Symphonie feels totally romantic (not surprising considering its subject) and yet (except for a part here and there) is atonal for the most part. The theme of love is gorgeous, the 'statue theme' is frightening (in a good way), the colors are lush, love that symphony to death. When I hear Joie du Sang des Etoiles, I feel like I'm floating in space amidst the glory of the stars. I need to get into Takemitsu more.
CHAOS IS ME!!!!!
You are CHAOS
That's why I'm here
dragnalus THAT'S where I heard this from! I knew it sounded familiar!
your a fucking RAWR XD ass bitch you're not chaos you're raunchy
i love scrolling down the comments and seeing stuff from years ago that rings true